I've Got This Music in My Mind (saying it's gonna be alright)
by Riley Scott
Summary: My ideal future Arrow verse. These will be out of order and most will be silly little fluff pieces with the occasional angst thrown in. If you aren't current on the show beware there could be spoilers. For now this verse in current with episode 3x17. 1) Girl Bonding 2) Boy Girl Bonding 3) Poor Roy 4) Sad Girl Bonding 5) Olicity Bonding 6) Flash/A
1. I Make The Moves Up As I Go

It had started because Felicity was tired of being the one person in the group to always be left behind. Every one was always so focused on keeping her safe, keeping her out of the way. She had been ordered to stay away from the action for so long. Well, unless she was strapped into a skinny dress and being paraded around and she was pretty much over it, thank you very much.

So once everything had gone down with the League and once Oliver was back to being Oliver and not a Merlyn puppet she had asked if she could start her training again. Well, asked was a loose term, more like she had told him in her loudest non-loud voice she could muster that she was over being weak and that she wanted to learn to hold her own. He had made several angsty Oliver faces and she knew that he had a list of reasons why she shouldn't be allowed to train, but things had been really awkward between them ever since he came back from his first battle with Ra's. And then there was that whole her sleeping with Ray thing, but they avoided that topic like they owed it money. So when they had the training conversation he babbled a little under his breath and adjusted the settings on his quiver a few times and then shrugged.

But they had both agreed that Thea should be the one to handle the actual training part, because they could barely be in the lair together without awkward stuttering and downward glances, let alone spar with each other in workout clothes. And then there would be touching and that wouldn't end well for either of their psyche's.

So Oliver had asked Thea and she had jumped at the chance to be Felicity's Obi-Wan. She didn't really have anyone to train with anymore since Malcolm was gone and she still couldn't get Oliver to come at her with a sword.

They started small, Thea first had to get Felicity into working out more than 5 situps in front of a Buffy rerun. They started jogging in the park every morning before Felicity had to be at work and before long they were racing each other and Felicity even won a few times. Once Thea got her into a daily habit of breaking a sweat over more than Roy watching Youtube on her Foundry setup, they started working on a little parkour.

The first time Felcity was able to flip off of a wall she wouldn't shut up about it for weeks. Every time someone questioned her on something she would flip her ponytail and look down her nose at them and say "Oh yeah? Can you do a sweet wall flip? Didn't think so."

She started to develop some muscle definition about 2 months into their workouts and Thea decided not to mention the fact that her workout clothes got even smaller. It didn't really matter anyhow, Oliver avoided the Foundry like the plague whenever he knew they would be training and Diggle and Roy were too busy laughing at how excited Felicity got when she nailed a new move.

They had been training for almost 3 months when Laurel asked if she could join in. Thea hadn't minded, but Felicity was a little intimated. She had always been jealous of 'Gorgeous Laurel' and she had seen her in the field. She wasn't as disciplined as Sarah by any means, but she was miles ahead of Felicity. Especially after she had started working with Nyssa, and she really didn't want to embarrass herself in front of the vigilante.

It was awkward at first, and Felicity started to take a backseat to the training and spent the first few sessions with Laurel there sitting off to the side. It took a few weeks, but eventually the three women had come up with a routine that worked for them and they were sparring together two or three times a week.

Over time Felicity went from being the student to matching her teachers. She started to feel comfortable no longer just playing defense and began initiating attacks and while new accomplishments still caused her to squeal, she became an accomplished opponent for the other women.

That was how it happened.

They had been training at least twice a week for over six months and in that time they had overcome the awkwardness that had surrounded them for all those weeks and they had become...friends. Weird friends who liked to beat on each other and run up walls, but friends nonetheless.

That was how it happened that on a Monday night, not their usual night, that the girls found themselves on the mats in the Foundry...dancing. They had all had a really busy weekend and hadn't had a chance to meet for their usual Saturday night session and had to reschedule. Felicity and Thea had missed their morning run and so when they all got to the club that night Felicity insisted they get in some cardio before sparring and had plugged her ipod up to the downstairs speaker system and hit shuffle while they all stretched to run laps.

Then...well, Felicity hadn't really thought it through when she had hit shuffle. Her iPod was kind of like her phone, it was her personal little world and she never left it open for judgment and well, she had forgotten what all was on it. So she had just put on her workout playlist expecting a lot of the usual EDM and then suddenly there was Taylor Swift (her secret spirit animal) singing loudly about shaking it off.

Thea and Laurel froze and Felicity stopped mid stretch, ass in the air, head in between her knees and she was thinking about just staying that way until it was over. But then Thea had burst out laughing and started to dance wildly, her arms above her head.

Felicity shot up and looked at her, and then at Laurel. Laurel seemed unsure about what to do but Felicity had to admit, this was kind of her jam and Thea looked like she was having fun, so she shrugged and started to flail right along with her. It took about 19 seconds for Laurel to pull the stick out her ass and join in.

They had been dancing for about 4 songs by the time they heard the quiver hit the floor. They all stopped, mid booty bump and turned to the bottom of the stairs to see Oliver standing there, hood off, mouth wide open and his bow on the floor by his feet.

"What the..." He started, his eyes wide and he was shaking his head. "This, this is the 'training' that you've been hogging my lair for the last six months?" He asked with a look that was way too judgmental for their liking and so they all rolled their eyes.

None too happy with his tone, Felicity gave the other women a look and walked over to the salmon ladder, wiping her hair off the hair that was sticking to her forehead. She looked directly at Oliver with a quirked eyebrow, grabbed onto the bar and started to make her way up the rungs, never looking away from him. She reached the top and considered doing the little flippy thing he liked to do, but she didn't want to press her luck that much...tonight, and then dismounted by dropping to her feet with a crouch. She stood tall (well as tall as she could in her sneakers) and 'dusted' off her hands and turned to Thea and Laurel who were looking at her like the sexy piece of meat she knew that she was and smiled.

"I'm kinda hungry, you ladies wanna grab some Big Belly Burger?"  
That was the last night the ladies had the Foundry to themselves to train.


	2. Sunshine and

Like most nights they were in the Foundry and also like most nights Roy was sitting on the edge of Felicity's desk twirling an arrow bored out his mind. They had just finished a big mission, something about a bank robber and some family jewels. Roy wasn't all that sure, he couldn't stop chuckling in his mind every time Oliver had growled the word family jewels.

All in all it had been a boring couple of days and while there was some action of the driving fast persuasion, there hadn't been much fighting and no one had gotten nearly dead and that made for a restless vigilante.

Oliver and Roy had headed back to the Foundry earlier that night to recap after the bad guy had been turned into SCPD and while Oliver had just left to have dinner with Thea, Roy didn't have much going on so he decided to stick around and poke at Felicity since she was stuck here setting up new searches for their next target.

Roy snuck a glance at Felicity and snorted. She still seemed to be on edge from her argument with Oliver and that made him roll his eyes. Those two had been on each others cases for months now. Even after everything with the League and Merlyn had died down Oliver and Felicity still were at odds. At least now the fights didn't often end in slamming doors and Felicity's loud voice.

He really hated it when Mom and Dad fought.

He didn't even know what there were fighting about at this point. It couldn't still be about Felicity dating Palmer, that had ended weeks ago when Ray had decided to move down to Coast City to help out some other Green dude.

He tried asking her about it, but all he got was a glare for his trouble and that annoyed him to no end. So he decided to poke at her some more.

"You're so married." Roy said simply, looking at the arrow he was poking his boot with. He tried not to smirk when Felicity stopped typing and turned to look at him, leaning back in her swivel chair, both arms resting on the handles.

"What does that even mean? Why do people keep saying that?" She asked with a huff.

"Because it's true. You and Oliver are so married that a piece of paper is irrelevant at this point." He said, dead serious. They really acted like an old married couple and it was sort of disgusting. "Married." He finished with a quirk of his eyebrow. He was sure it looked a little ridiculous since he was still wearing his grease paint, but if it worked for The Winter Solider he was sure he could pull it off too.

"We are not married! I am not married to Oliver Queen." Felicity said in her loud voice, shaking her head at him. Then she squinted and kind of shrugged a little "Yeah okay, so he may have kissed me once." She paused and winced. "Or you know twice or maybe even like a few times. But we are not married." She said firmly, and the bit her lip. "And yes they were nice kisses. And yeah okay so his lips may have tasted like sunshine and erections...and oh my God no! Not like erections. His lips so did not remind me of erections or the taste."

Felicity stared.

Roy stared.

They both just stared.

And the second Roy blinked Felicity knew that he wouldn't just let that go and she raised her hand to her face and rose to her feet to pace.

Roy sat there and watched her start to pace, head in her hand and smirked. Never in his life did he think that he would want to discuss Oliver Queen and erections but this was just way too good to pass up.

"You said his lips taste like erections. I was right here. I witnessed that happening." Roy said, getting to his feet and crossing his arms over his chest with a triumphant grin.

"No, no, no nononono, I did not say that and that is not even a thing. No erections. Not erections, that did not come out right." She insisted, her hands now gone from her face and waving around. She was going to vomit. It was going to happen.

"Or did it come out just right?" Roy asked with a laugh as he followed her around the lair, keeping a safe distance from her flailing arms.

"No, no coming, there was no coming and no erections and why for the love of GOD can I not stop saying erections?" At that Felicity flung herself onto the couch in the corner and buried her face into the arm rest and, because she was an adult and a crime fighter she did the mature thing and screamed into the cushion.

"You can stop saying erection as soon as you tell me how you know Oliver's lips taste like an erection." Roy said, totally serious from behind the couch, his chin propped up on the top. This was like his Christmas.

"No taste, there was no taste of anything like that. No taste. Nope. None." Felicity said, popping the 'p' in Nope as she leaned forward to put her head in between her knees, because yes she was going to vomit from embarrassment.

"You said taste." Roy said matter-of-factly as he came around the couch and sat beside her. "You literally said the word taste and erection and something about sunshine but who the fuck cares about sunshine when there are erections involved?" Roy squinted at that, wondering why HE kept saying erections. Felicity was rubbing off on him.

"No. There is nothing about erections and I just need you to go away. Please stop it, I am tired and I just tracked a bank robber for 72 hours and I need a shower." At this she rose from the couch and started to make her way to the bathroom, to use the emergency shower to drown herself so she could stop talking about Oliver's erection flavored lips.

"A cold one." She heard Roy snicker behind her as she slammed the door.

Six months later, when Roy and Diggle had come down the stairs of the Foundry to see Oliver and Felicity engaged in an embrace that would make Donna Smoak blush Roy had to be escorted out he was laughing so hard.

Literally choking on the work 'erection'.


	3. That's Just Rude Man

The sound of the Foundry door slamming echoed off the walls and Oliver looked up from his position, where he had been comparing his arrow to the league's. At first he was confused as to why Roy would be limping down the stairs in his Arsenal outfit and an angry look on his face. He squinted as he searched his mind for the details of any mission he might have sent Roy on.

When it hit him he immediately squeezed his eyes closed and groaned.

"Seriously?" Roy asked through gritted teeth as he hobbled over to the med table and hopped onto the stool.

"My bad?" Oliver said with a wince as he sat his homework down and walked over to Roy and helped him out of his gear.

"My bad?" He asked loudly. "You drag me into your dick measuring contest with super suit and then leave me there when he zapps me? And what the hell was that anyway? What the hell is he now? Iron Man?" Roy asked as he pushed Oliver's help away and pulled at the straps to his gear.

Oliver shook his head, wanting to laugh but not having the energy.

"Apparently he prefers 'Atom'." He answered with a shrug.

"What? Like the shitty monster human hybrid on Buffy? Doesn't he know that was the worst villain?" Roy asked from the floor as he was yanking off his boots. "How did you get him to back off?"

"What? I don't know what you're talking about. Have you been watching Netflix with Felicity again?" Oliver asked, thoroughly confused. "And I took out his power source." He finished as an afterthought.

"Wow, he really is like Adam." Roy twisted his mouth to hide his embarrassment. "I think the subject we are on here is that you left me on the ground outside of some super creepy warehouse. Not cool, bro. Maybe I'll join the super suit guys team too."

"I fucked up." Oliver said, his hands in the air. "Just don't rat me out to Thea." He asked as he walked back over to the arrows.

"Oh don't worry." Roy said as he made his way to the bathroom slowly. "I won't tell Thea. But I don't think she would be nearly as mad as Felicity was when I texted her." Oliver's widened eyes took in the smirk on Roy's face as he slammed the bathroom door shut.


	4. Dirty Chi and Dirty Talk

Felicity was drunk.

Like really, really drunk.

She wasn't entirely sure how that had happened really.

She, Thea and Laurel had finished a training session and since Laurel's new boyfriend was out of town at a medical conference so she had asked the other girls to join her for a drink. And they had learned at this point that when Laurel asked them out for a drink that she really meant coffee. So they had stopped off at the coffee shop around the corner from Verdant and it had all started off as very three girlfriends chatting over caffeinated beverages and dishing on their love lives.

Roy and Thea were still going strong, it had been over a year this time. Ever since the League had left Starling they had recommitted to each other, this time with no secrets left.

Laurel and West were doing great, keeping things kind of casual since they both kept extremely odd hours and Laurel felt no pressure to tell him about her side job.

Felicity hadn't had much of a love life since Ray had left, their split had been amicable and they still spoke occasionally, but it was mostly about tech and missions. There was no awkwardness and no ill will from Felicity, she was very happy for two of her closest friends.

But then Laurel had bid the a goodnight and Thea had ordered Felicity and herself a dirty chi. One turned into two and before she knew it she was beyond buzzed, on both caffeine and alcohol.

She pieced together just why Thea had been plying her with liquored up tea when the crafty Queen cocked her eyebrow and said "so, how are things going with my brother?"

Alarms started going off in Felicity's mind immediately but she wasn't close lipped on her most sober day, but after 5 dirty chi's she would spill military secrets to the Triad if prodded properly. So instead of doing the smart thing and pretending that she didn't know what Thea was talking about she groaned. "Did Roy tell you about the erection thing? Because I told him that was not true, and that I didn't mean it." She said as she plopped her head onto the table, the room spinning a little.

She knew she had made a mistake when she heard Thea squeak.

Suddenly it was midnight and the barista was giving them dirty looks and shoving them out the door. Once she had started spilling all of the awkward instances of her and Oliver kisses and near naked times that had happened over the past few years, the ones that had increased in frequency since Ray left town and Felicity had perfected her salmon ladder routine, Thea had started ordering herself mimosas.

All that resulted in was two very wasted Team Arrow members with no way to get themselves home. So they did what they always did when the screwed up and Oliver would be mad. They called Diggle.

Somehow in the 20 minutes that it took Diggle to get to them things had gone from giggly and gossipy to sad and a little bitter. Thea started it with a whispered "I wish my brother would get his shit together. I wish you were my sister." against Felicity's shoulder and ended with a "I am so sick of him only telling me he loves me as a goodbye." as Felicity finally broke down into tears, the first time she had cried over Oliver since the night of Diggle's wedding over a year ago.

That's how Diggle found them, huddled on the sidewalk in front of the closed cafe, shoulder to shoulder, crying and hugging sideways. They were the perfect image of 'drunk white girl' and Diggle just shook his head and took turns helping them into the truck. The fact that both of the women could and in fact, had kicked his ass on more than once occasion made him smile a little, despite the snot that Thea has wiped on his shoulder.

He dropped Thea off at the loft first, since she was the closest and made sure she got inside safely before returning to the truck to take Felicity home. She had sobered up slightly, the crying had stopped and now she was just sitting there with her head laying against the head rest and looking out the window, her hair a mess and her eyes swollen. She stayed quiet most of the way home, the occasionally sniffle breaking the silence.

Finally as Digg turned down her street and pulled up outside of her townhouse putting the truck into park she sighed, and the sound was hollow. Still looking out the window she asked "Why isn't it enough? Why is it that I love him so much? When he loves me just enough to keep me with him, but not enough for him to be with me?" Her voice was quiet and broken. Diggle felt his stomach clinch and closed his eyes. He had been watching his two best friends dance around each other for four years now, and he could see the love they both felt and he could tell it was slowly ripping them apart.

His eyes snapped open when he heard Felicity open her door and climb out. She was standing in the street now, her arms crossed around her and she looked so broken. He got out of the truck and stood in front of her, and opened his arms. He expected her to fall into them like she had done a hundred times before but she just shook her head and walked around him. She was to the other side of the truck and walking onto the sidewalk when he turned around.

"Hey, Felicity" he started and then she turned, her eyes filled with tears again. "Just because he doesn't love you like you expect him to, it doesn't mean that he doesn't love you with every thing he has." Diggle said, his hands in his pockets. He gave her a half smile and watched as her eyes widened and he then gave a little wave and climbed back into the truck, shutting the door behind him. He stayed there as she turned and slowly walked up to her door and made her way inside.

She laid in bed awake for hours that night, and not just because of the caffeine overdose. She thought back over her time with Oliver, as a friend and constant partner. Most days she loved their relationship, they spent everyday together, every holiday, almost every meal. They were family and they both loved each other, and most of the time she was happy with the stand still they had reached. They were flirty and had developed a level of comfort with each other that she had never obtained with anyone that she had ever actually been in a relationship with.

She was happy with her life, with her makeshift family and with their work. She knew that Oliver struggled with his feelings for her and every so often he would lose that struggle and they would end up against a wall, all hands and lips and teeth. But then someone's phone would buzz, or a search would ding, Oliver would grip her too tight or she would pull at his zipper and then the spell would be broken.

She knew that Oliver was it for her, and she felt like she was it for him. She had tried to be with someone else, and had even come to love Ray, but her feelings for him had never measured up against her feelings for Oliver. And she knew deep down that no one else would either, that any love she pursued beyond him would pale in comparison. So as she stared at the ceiling she made peace with herself and her future with Oliver. She would wake up in the morning, carry on with life as usual and wait for the day when there were no more excuses. For the day when the love he felt for her, the love that he felt with everything he had was enough to make him give in to it.

She owed it to herself to not give up on that love.


	5. Just Drive

Growing up in Las Vegas had always been a struggle for Felicity. She wasn't bright lights and sequins, she was sundresses and 4 am study sessions. She had always felt suffocated living there, it was always too crowded and too loud. So shortly after she had gotten her drivers permit she had started to sneak out of the house at odd hours of the night. She would drive for hours through the desert, the windows down and her hair flying. She had always felt so free and she felt like she belonged.

Her car was her space, and the middle of the night was her time.

That behavior hadn't really changed when she had left Vegas. Whenever something in her life wasn't going her way, or when she just stopped feeling like she fit she would jump out of bed, plug her iPod into the speaker system and drive all night. She learned all of the secrets of Boston during her freshman year at MIT and it had only taken her a month to learn all of Starling City.

Oliver had once asked her how she knew all the side roads in and out of town so well and she had just smiled.

"Maybe I'll show you one day." was all that she had said and he just nodded.

She had spent many nights on the roads of Starling when she had first moved here. She had felt so out of place and so overwhelmed by her life. So she would drive out of town a few nights a week and had only considered never turning around once or twice.

Once she had found her footing at QC and had made a couple of friends and had established a routine she hadn't really felt the need to continue her late night trips. But then she had found a bleeding vigilante in her backseat and she once again began to rack up gas points on her credit card.

This was her favorite time of year.

It was that special time when the air had started to warm during the day and the last of the snow had melted. The air was chilled at night but not enough for a heavy coat. She could ride around in the middle of the night with her car windows down, and the heat pumping through the vents kept the goosebumps at bay.

She always knew whether a relationship would last after their first middle of the night road trip. If the guy talked too much, or turned the volume of her play list down, or if he laughed at her perfect combo of manufactured heat and chilled air.

This was the first time she was taking Oliver with her and he had seemed confused at first.

They had been 'together' for almost two months, and still hadn't officially had 'the talk' yet, but they were happy.

So tonight, after a slow Arrow week she was having a hard time falling asleep and she had started to feel the familiar ache in her veins to escape. So she had rolled over in bed and shook Oliver awake. She didn't tell him where they were going, just asked him to follow her and like usual, he did without question.

They drove for hours without talking. The music pumping through the speakers and the hot air blowing over their melded hands.

They crawled back into bed as the sun rose and Oliver kissed her on the forehead as she snuggled into the crook of his shoulder.

"Thank you for showing me." He whispered as her breathing evened out.


	6. One of those Voices

How Oliver Queen had ended up in Central City sitting in a Karaoke bar listening to a drunk Diggle, Barry Allen and Roy do a surprisingly impressive rendition of 'Uptown Funk' was beyond him. He was torn between laughing his ass off and grumbling that they really shouldn't have left his city unguarded for a weekend for this.

But then out of the corner of his eye he saw Felicity rise from her chair on the other side of the table to give the guys a standing ovation while laughing so hard she was crying.

That's how he had ended up here.

The day before Barry had called them at the Foundry to beg Team Arrow to come visit for a last minute surprise party for Caitlin's birthday. At first he had refused, solely because he didn't want to leave Starling City abandoned for a few days, despite the lack of activity over the previous month. But then Felicity had given him the puppy dog eyes and pinched Roy in the side until he joined in. And when Roy was sporting the puppy eyes he knew that Thea wasn't far behind.

So he had caved, because even though he still wasn't a huge fan of Barry's he did like Caitlin. And according to Barry she was having a pretty hard time lately because her dead, not really dead metahuman ex-fiance was out of town again and she was planing on spending her birthday alone.

They had shut down the Foundry for the weekend, loaded up the truck with all of Team Arrow, even a reluctant Laurel and had headed to Central City. Oliver immediately regretted his decision when he had gotten to the bar and realized that Barry had rented out a Karaoke bar for the night and that anyone in attendance was expected to sing a song of the birthday girl's choosing.

But Caitlin was pretty happy with the situation. Which could have a lot to do with her inhaling her fifth cranberry and vodka, but he wasn't judging. He was actually hoping that she would get too hammered to remember that she hadn't forced him to get on the stage.

He smiled when he came out of the bathroom and Felicity and Thea were on stage arm in arm, belting out some old Kelly Clarkson song about their life sucking and pulling at each other. They were putting on quite the show and his team was all yelling and cheering for them at the front of the stage, and Caitlin was slam dancing with Cisco, a drink in both of their hands.

He returned to his seat just as the girls finished up on stage and bounced over to him drunkenly, Caitlin skipping along with them. Thea plopped down into his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"Oh Ollie, you are not nearly drunk enough for this to be fun. But, my dear brother it is time for you to do your penance." Thea slurred to him, her smile bigger than he had seen on her face in ages. He would have laughed if he wasn't a bit terrified. He kind of wished he was a little drunk for this too.

He looked away from his swaying sister and over to Caitlin with wide eyes. "Come on, Snow, you know you would mush rather hear Roy beat box again. He is so much better than me at this kind of thing."

"Ooooh no, Queen. This is allll you." She announced as her and Felicity swayed together to music that no one else could hear. "Besides, besides, you know," She started to lose her train of thought as Felicity started to play with her hair and giggle in her ear. "Barry!" She said loudly, so loudly that Felicity squeaked and stopped braiding her hair "Barry told me that he has to beat you at something. And we all know that he sings like a glee kid or something. It's really not fair. So he thinks this is his chance. I owed to him. Or, owed that to him. Owe him that. One of the above, you get what I'm saying." She spouted off confusingly, and then looked at Oliver with a smile. "Now, I need you to get up there and sing Carry on My Wayward Son. I know you know it, because Felicity told me you like that supernatural show with those dudes in the flannel." She finished triumphantly and Oliver turned his gaze to Felicity who had suddenly become very fascinated by the hem of her skirt.

Oliver walked to the stage wondering what exactly he had done wrong in his life to end up here. Sure he had killed people, but he was kind of like a ninja and ninja's killed people and no one made them sing for it. Okay so maybe he was a little more drunk than he thought.

That was actually a good thing.

He climbed onto the stage and glared down at his team and the Flash crew as they all waited breathlessly for him to screw up so they could laugh. The only person not laughing was Thea, and that's because Thea was the only person still alive that knew he wasn't actually bad at this.

He rolled his eyes and pressed play on the little machine off to the side of the stage and grabbed the mic.

"Once I rose above the noise and confusion  
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion  
I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high

Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man  
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man  
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming,  
I can hear them say"

He would have laughed if he was a smaller person. And yet he was kind of laughing at the stunned look on everyone but Thea's face. And well, Barry didn't really look stunned, more like green. That seemed ironic.

Maybe he could learn to like this.

"Carry on my wayward son,  
There'll be peace when you are done  
Lay your weary head to rest  
Don't you cry no more

Masquerading as a man with a reason  
My charade is the event of the season  
And if I claim to be a wise man,  
Well, it surely means that I don't know"

Yeah, okay so he was showing off a little. But Felicity was too drunk to hide the way he was affecting her and Barry looked like he wanted to turn back time (again) and it was making him really happy that he had agreed to this little trip.

"On a stormy sea of moving emotion  
Tossed about, I'm like a ship on the ocean  
I set a course for winds of fortune,  
But I hear the voices say"

Finally Thea had gotten Laurel and Roy to dance around with her, and they had all produced lighters from some unknown source and were waving them around as they danced in a circle around the Flash team.

"Carry on my wayward son  
There'll be peace when you are done  
Lay your weary head to rest  
Don't you cry no more no!

Carry on,  
You will always remember  
Carry on,  
Nothing equals the splendor  
Now your life's no longer empty  
Surely heaven waits for you

Carry on my wayward son  
There'll be peace when you are done  
Lay your weary head to rest  
Don't you cry,  
Don't you cry no more,

No more!"

Oliver finished with an over exaggerated air guitar and literally dropped the mic as he jumped off stage. Thea, being the ever indulging little sister came running up to him and hugged him.

"Oh, Mr. Queen, can I have your autograph?" She asked, batting her lashes and biting her lip to hold in a giggle. Oliver laughed as she bounced away from him to grab Caitlin for another round of some poppy number and he returned to his seat.

Just as Thea and Caitlin made it back up to the stage the door to the bar opened. Caitlin looked up from the song listings and gasped so hard she gave herself the hiccups.

"Ronnie!" She yelled, running from the stage, losing a shoe and launched herself at the smiling man standing by the door.

Felicity came to join him at his table, sitting a beer in front of him and taking a sip of her red wine. Behind them, Thea had dragged Cisco on stage and they started in on her 'lady jam' as she introduced it and Felicity hmmed as she watched Caitlin drag Ronnie to the dance floor.

"So, that's the ex-fiance that's not really an ex?" She asked to no one in particular.

Oliver shrugged and answered "I guess so. I guess he's the not so ex tonight." He offered, and pointed to the way Caitlin's leg was half wrapped around Ronnie's thighs as they swayed to the super fast song Thea and Cisco were destroying.

"Guess not." Felicity said around a laugh. "You know, you guys kind of look alike." She said, squinting as she took in the metahuman.

Oliver huffed out a laugh around his bottle "You think?" He asked and smiled when she nodded. "Huh, guess we just have one of those faces."


	7. That One Time

"Goddammit!" Felicity cried out as she twisted the knob over and over and nothing happened. Finally she just gave up and slapped at her shower curtain in anger.

Starling City had been suffering from a heat wave for almost two weeks now and until today, the only relief Felicity had was taking a cold show after work each day. That is, until her cold water knob suddenly stopped working.

"Whhhaaaaaaaa." Felicity whined, sitting on the lid of her toilet with her head in her hand. She knew she could always take a sponge bath in the sink, because that knob worked, but she knew that wouldn't give her nearly the same relief. So she got up, stripping off her pencil skirt and pastel pink blouse and tossed them on her bed as she walked past her room. Walking into the kitchen in just her bra and panties she made her way to the fridge, opening up her freezer for a popsicle.

That was how Oliver found her, when he walked into her apartment twenty minutes later. Standing in front of her fridge, her back leaning against the open door jam, her hand on her hip and a popsicle in her mouth, her eyes closed.

"Um, am I interrupting something?" He asked from the kitchen doorway, his eyebrow cocked. He was starting to worry that he had walked in on her in the middle of some date thing.

Felicity's eyes flew open and she pulled the popsicle out of her mouth so quickly she almost choked. She looked at him, in his normal suit and tie attire, and then down at herself in her mismatched bra and panties and groaned.

"Look, Oliver. Normally this would make me want to die. And it very well may haunt my nightmares for months to come. But right now, I couldn't care any less if I tried." She said simply, popping the icy treat back into her mouth.

"Um, excuse me?" He asked with a laugh.

"It's hot. It's hot outside. My office is hot. The Foundry is hot. I'm dying here. My building's a/c burnt out days ago, my car's a/c has never worked and today my cold water finally decided to give out on me. It's like some huge cosmic joke and frankly I am too hot to care about much of anything. I don't even care what it is that you're doing here, in my apartment without knocking or even calling first. And I sure as hell don't care to carry on some babbling awkward 'oh God my vigilante boss is seeing me almost naked' thing. I just want to stand here with my ice pop and be left alone to puddle." She stepped back further into the cool embrace of the fridge as she ranted and closed her eyes. And Oliver just watched her, her body covered in a fine sheen of sweat and he smiled.

"The loft has really great a/c. In fact, it's a little too chilly for my taste. You can crash with me and Thea until you're building fixes the issues here." He said simply, shoving his hands into his pockets and trying to not talk to her breasts.

"Do I have to put on real clothes to get there?" Felicity asked, opening one eye, a small smirk on her lips.


	8. Are His Abs Better?

When Oliver's knee finally gave out on him and he had no choice but to have surgery now, or face a total knee replacement by the time he was 35, Felicity happily volunteered to be his nurse. She quickly regretted that decision when she realized that a sidelined vigilante with nothing to keep him busy became a real pain in the ass.

So she resorted to her favorite sick-in-bed pastime, a Netflix marathon.

She should have known that picking a show about a fatherless vigilante wasn't the best choice.

"Do you think Matt Murdock is cooler than me?" Oliver asked suddenly and his voice was only slightly slurred. And that was just because he was tired. It had absolutely nothing at all to do with the three glasses of wine he had drank after his pain killers.

Of course not.

Felicity looked at him over the rim of her fourth, no, fifth glass and squinted.

"Are you...are you serious right now?" She asked, her words echoing in the glass.

"You do, don't you?" Oliver asked her, his voice laced with drunken accusation. "I mean look at him. Of course he's cooler than me." He said angrily, waving his hand at the tv screen as another bad guy flew into the wall."With his cane and his law practice and dammit he's just so sassy." He said with a pout. "He hit that guy in the face with a drawer. That's so cool. I've never done that." He finished and leaned over to pour himself another glass. Matt Murdock probably drank better wine too. The bastard.

"Oliver." Felicity started, one hand on her wine glass and the other on her forehead. "You are actually sitting here on my couch complaining that you are not as cool as some Marvel superhero? That is real life right now?" She asked for clarification.

"Even his suits are cooler than mine." He complained with a very unsexy whiny voice and Felicity rolled her eyes.

Suddenly he looked up from his glass in a panic. "Are his abs better than mine?" He asked, his voice way too loud for her wine drunk mind.

"Oh my God! You are driving me crazy. Oliver, you just had to have knee surgery. You will be fine. It is not the end of the world. You just need to relax for a few days. I promise once the swelling has gone down that you can go out and throw a drawer in the face of some creep." She told him in her loud voice, and regretted it because it made her head spin.

But he looked over at her and smiled a little so it made up for her swishy head.

"You promise, you're not just saying that?" He asked, his voice little and she laughed. "Because if you're lying to me, trust that I will know and I will be unhappy."

She stopped laughing.

"Yes, Oliver. I promise. Besides, you can't compare yourself to the sass level of a Marvel superhero. You're so much more DC than Marvel and everyone knows that they are more broody." She told him matter-of-factly as she hit the continue button on her remote to start the next episode.

"Wait, are you calling me broody?"


	9. My Body is My Journal

Felicity had done a very good job of keeping it hidden.

The placement of it was very personal to her, it held a very intense meaning, but it was also highly visible. At first she had been more concerned with the meaning of the tattoo, than whether someone would see it. She knew that anyone that would even notice it, the people that she was closest to would ignore it out of respect.

She had gotten the tattoo as a memorial for the dead.

But then the dead returned.

And so her tattoo had gone into hiding. She had started to wear her hair down more often, her wardrobe suddenly had more scarves, more high neck sweaters. She never worked out around him if it could be avoided. It was hard at first, a conscious effort, but eventually it had become second nature and she rarely ever thought about it anymore.

Which would explain why, as she was sitting here with her shirt in her hands and her back to Oliver that she didn't even hesitate when he gruffly asked her to pull her hair away from her neck.

They had been on a mission tonight, and of course Felicity had eagerly volunteered to go undercover. And like usual when on an undercover mission she had gotten hurt. It could have been a lot worse of course, if she hadn't been training so heavily over the past year, but some creep had still managed to slice into her left shoulder pretty good. Good enough to need stitches.

Oliver had fussed over her enough once they got back to the foundry that she had yelled at him. That had helped clear the room quite nicely and so here they were, all alone and he was finally getting to play doctor on her.

If Felicity hadn't been so irritated by his mother hen attitude and so upset over losing yet another cute top, she may have rethought the idea of being basically topless in front of him. The dangers of being topless, in conjunction with leaving her neck bare didn't occur to her until she felt his hand freeze on her shoulder. For a split second she was confused, thinking maybe she had started to bleed again. But then it hit her and she simultaneously squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lower lip to keeping from gasping.

Oliver stayed silent for a good ten seconds, one hand still frozen on her wound, the other hovering just above the nape of her neck. She had a fleeting thought that he would just let it go. But then he stepped away from her so quickly that she heard him back into her office chair. She groaned and turned around on the stool to face him, pulling her top over herself to cover her bra. She kept her eyes on the floor and chewed at her lips, not wanting to be the first to talk, a foreign feeling for her.

"You-" He started, and not liking the harshness of his voice he cleared his throat. "You have a, uh-" He said, his voice rough and he waved his hand in her vague direction and closed his eyes, bringing his other hand up to squeeze the bridge of his nose.

"Yup." She said simply, popping the 'p'. She still refused to look up at him.

"When?" He asked softly. "I uh, I mean how long?" He corrected, as he backed up to lean on her desk.

"When you were gone. I needed something that I could remember you by." She answered him, her tone very matter of fact. She finally brought her eyes up to his and she saw nothing but confusion there.

He knew what she was referring to without being told. No one really liked to talk about his trip up the mountain or his descent.

"And a tattoo was your solution?" He asked her, cocking an eyebrow.

Felicity stiffened at that. She could hear the judgment in his tone and it made her bristle. She sighed and attempted to keep her tone even. "Well, it seemed appropriate at the time. I needed to have a part of you. A part of what we were. And given my history, I also needed something to save my neck, in a very literal sense. So it seemed very rational. I have my Arrow to protect me." She finished off quietly, never taking her eyes off of him. "You were gone, Oliver. And like I've said before, you don't get to pass judgment on how we dealt with that." There was no venom in her voice, but she felt very defensive over her choice and wouldn't let him tarnish it's meaning.

She was surprised when he just nodded, his hands now shoved in his pockets. He looked around the foundry and waited a beat and then ran his eyes over her again before they went back to the floor.

"There are three of them. Why three?" This time he only sounded curious, the slight panic was gone from his voice.

"You weren't the only one that was gone, Oliver. The entire team was in shambles and we were all struggling to put ourselves back together. I love Roy and Laurel, but while you were gone it was really hard to think of them as a part of what we started. So I wanted a memorial for not just you, but for what we were in the beginning. The original Team Arrow. Three of us, three arrows." She wondered idly if he could hear her heart. She felt like it was echoing off the walls and she felt like she was going to collapse from how fast it was beating.

"I asked you to stop calling us that." He said quietly, a small smirk on his lips and she could tell that he was using his patented Ollie Queen escape tactics to avoid this conversation from getting anymore real. But she had been hiding an important part of herself for way too long now and she was exhausted. She took in a deep breathe and let out a hollow chuckle.

"Yeah, well you also tried to get me to stop loving you. That didn't take either. Get used to it." If he hadn't heard her heart before, he certainly could now. She was two seconds away from a heart attack. She starred at him for what felt like hours, willing her heart to stop pounding in her ears so that she would hear his response. But none ever came. Her eyes fluttered and she snapped her mouth shut, and she felt overcome with an insane desire to laugh. But she didn't, instead she just pursed her lips and started to pull her ripped and bloody shirt over her head, not caring how gross it was.

It probably only took her a good 90 seconds to get herself situated, all of her clothing righted again and she reached into the purse at her feet and pulled out a hair tie. She carefully pulled her hair back into a messy bun, being mindful of her still open wound and didn't look at Oliver as she got ready to leave. Once she was ready she did glance over at him and rolled her eyes at the cry face that she had grown used to over the past few years.

This time she felt no sympathy for him, this wasn't something that had been done to him, he was doing this to himself.

To them.

She started to walk over to the stairs and threw her hand up in a wave. "See you tomorrow, boss."

She made it up three steps before he stopped her. She heard him a split second before she saw him, just enough time to brace herself so that when he pulled her to face him she didn't fall on her face.

She was startled and wanted to snap at him for manhandling her, but that train of thought quickly left the station when he pulled her forward the rest of the way and slammed his lips onto hers. She briefly thought that the added height of the stairs made them equals, but the he tilted his mouth over hers and his hand was cupping her tattoo and she stopped thinking.

It all happened so quickly. One second she was gasping for breath on the steps, staring into the eyes of her boss/friend/partner and watching his pupils turn the darkest shade of blue she had ever seen, and the next she had her legs wrapped around his hips, and he was walking her over to the medical table and using the arm not gripping her ass to shove all supplies to the floor.

She gasped when she came into contact with the cold metal, her thighs gripping Oliver's hips tighter and he growled against her neck. The sound made the ache in her stomach throb so she did it again and smiled when he bit down lightly in retaliation. She thrilled at the feel of his lips on her skin and slowly started to grind herself against him, delighting in the fact that she could feel how much this was effecting him too. She ran her hands over her shoulders and up to his face, to pull him from her neck and back to her mouth. All she could think of at this point was getting as close to him as possible and that meant less clothing. She moved her hands down his sides and started to pull at his shirt and he got the hint, pulling away from her long enough to rip it over his head. Taking his lead, she quickly worked to divest herself of her top, and nearly made it but then the fabric caught on her wound and she yelped in pain.

Felicity in pain was pretty much the equivalent of an ice bucket challenge on Oliver's libido and he quickly stepped away from her.

Mood ruined, and her wound now bleeding again, they both decided to delay the naughty stuff for some much needed medical attention. Half an hour later her shoulder was stitched and had an expertly applied bandage. The air was thick with tension and unspoken questions.

"So-" She started, and raised her hand to her lips, feeling that they were still swollen from their earlier actions.

"Yeah." He said, his hand on the back of his neck as he stood in front of her, and he looked almost bashful.

She finally decided to take pity on him and smiled lightly. "Are you just like, totally starving?"

He let out a soft laugh that seemed to be reserved solely for her and nodded. "I am actually."

She slipped down from the stool and grabbed her top, pulling it over her head and smiled. "Cool. I say we stop at that 24 hour diner on the way to my place." She said heading towards the stairs for the second time that night, this time waiting for him to follow.

"Yeah, okay. Wait? Your place?" He asked curiously, grabbing his jacket and slipping in on as he followed her up the stairs.

She turned back to him and smirked. "Yeah. And make sure you order a lot of protein. You're gonna need it."

The next morning they lay in bed for hours. She traced his tattoos with the same reverence that he did hers and they talked in soft murmurs, not wanting to disturb the air around them. She had her head resting on his bare chest and her hair was pulled away from her neck, so he could see his mark on her at all times. The mark that she had gotten as a sign of the protection only he could provide her.

"Hey." He whispered to her, his fingers running through her hair and she opened her eyes a little and smiled at him.

"Yeah?"

"I'm curious-" He started "What did the tattoo guy think when you ask him for an Arrow tattoo. I mean that had to seem weird, considering it's the mark of a vigilante." He reasoned and looked confused when she let out a husky laugh.

"Oh, yeah that." She said with a smirk, her voice rough from sleep and overuse. "He actually wasn't all that surprised. Apparently there have been a lot of fan girls over the past few years coming to get Arrow related tattoos. It appears that you have a fanbase. Captain Arrow."


End file.
